Leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC Worldwide, has backed President Goodluck Jonathan‘s directives to relocate the $500m Egina Floating Production Storage and Offloading facility in Lagos to Agge in Bayelsa state.

IYC said the Niger Delta people backed the directive of President Jonathan to move the facilityto the Niger Delta where the eventual job is to be done.

IYC in a statement by its spokesman, Comrade Eric Omare said: “We also support the directive to move oil and gas cargoes to ports in Warri, Calabar and Onne.

Omare said: “This is not only in line with the requirement of the local content law but is also makes so much economic sense.

According to IYC, “It is common knowledge that Lagos is highly congested and there is need to move some class of cargoes especially oil and gas materials to ports within the Niger Delta region where the oil facilities are located.”

The spokesman said,” We consider the opposition to the Presidential directive and the attendant media propaganda by the Lagos cabal as an insult on Niger Deltans.

The group said, “It is on record that all the oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region have their offices in Lagos to the detriment of the Niger Delta economy.

The statement added, Henceforth, Niger Deltans would take steps to ensure that any oil company without its headquarters in the Niger Delta region would not be allowed to operate in the region.

IYC further frowned and condemn the ex-parte order of the federal High Court.

“We wonder how the federal High Court would hurriedly grant such an order without giving opportunity to other parties to present their own side of the case. We question the swiftness of the order and call on the National Judicial Council to investigate the judge who granted the order.”

The group leadership said: “We want to make it clear that whether court injunction or no court injunction, we would not allow materials to be fabricated in Lagos and used to build oil platform in the Niger Delta region. Niger Deltans have been taken for granted for too long and we would no longer accept it.”